Ruthie Henshall is a five-time Olivier Award nominee, and she has won the U.K. equivalent of the Tonys once (for She Loves Me, in 1995). She’s also appeared on Broadway (initially in Chicago in 1999) and a variety of other productions and tours. But Henshall may have had a very different sort of adult career, if she had, in the 1990s, chosen an alternate path.

Henshall was dating Prince Edward (Queen Elizabeth’s youngest son) 20 or so years ago, and is, as the Daily Mailputs it, “the last actress to be romantically involved with a member of the Royal Family.” The most recent person to do so, of course, is none other than Suits star Meghan Markle, who—in a move that had long been rumored—is reportedly going to be stepping down from the role when the seventh season of the USA series finishes next year.

Henshall split from Edward (with whom she remains friends and still keeps in touch) so that she could continue to pursue her acting career, and she says now she believes Markle might want to think twice about entirely giving up her profession. “It should be about love not duty and I think it [Harry and Meghan] could work and be rather wonderful. But the issue is whether she has to give up acting—and she’s a very successful actress by all accounts. I do think she will find it hard.”

She continued, “It never would have been an option for me to do so—my career is my first love and is such an important part of who I am. I would have been unhappy.”

Henshall—in a fun detail—“captured the interest” of Edward initially when she was on stage performing in Cats. And she later said that, during the five years of their relationship, he “smuggled her into Buckingham Palace.”